PLYMOUTH, Mich. – Joseph Cullen saw a bit of space open up and made sure to make the most of it.
“It’s one of those things where you get the window and you think, this is your time to be the guy,” Cullen said. “So, you just kind of work for that and pick your spot.”
That spot gave the Minnesota Blue Ox (MN) a 5-4 overtime victory in the title game of the 2025 Chipotle-USA Hockey Youth Tier I 14U National Championships against the Minutemen Flames (MA), as Cullen completed his hat trick in overtime.
It was an exclamation point on a dramatic national championship for the Blue Ox, who went 6-0 during the tournament and won five of their games by one goal.
In the knockout round, the Blue Ox defeated the Dallas Stars Elite (TX) on a goal by Cullen with 25 seconds remaining. Then, in the semifinal, they defeated Little Caesars (MI) in overtime.
So, it was only fitting when the championship game required a similar path against an opponent in the Flames who the Blue Ox had beaten 2-1 in overtime during group play.
“This team always finds a way, it’s such a tight-knight group and we work hard for each other,” Cullen said. “When it gets close to the end, we find a way.”
In the championship game, the Flames had taken a 4-3 lead with 6:50 remaining and were 11 seconds from a championship before Ayven Hontvet tied it for the Blue Ox.
In overtime, the Blue Ox had to kill off a penalty before Hovtvet drew a penalty and set the stage for Cullen’s winner.
“We got our kill and I think that was big to our momentum,” Cullen said. “We kind of got it done with that and then it was time to go from there.”
Cameron Coulter also scored for Minnesota, while goalie Will Arnold made 27 saves in the victory.
Graham Furness, Austin Wu, Robert DeKleine and Ethan Machado scored for the Flames, while goalie Will Torres made 29 saves.
Furness gave the Flames a 1-0 lead with 7:39 remaining in the first period, taking a pass in stride from Brodie Anderson and roofing a shot over the goalie’s right shoulder to score his first goal of the tournament.
Wu doubled the lead to 2-0 with 42 seconds remaining in the first period, tapping home a feed from Chris Sawyer, who had spun off a hit and delivered the sharp pass to his linemate. Like Furness, it was Wu’s first goal of the tournament.
Cullen cut the deficit to 2-1 with 9:57 remaining in the second period. Cullen looked off the pass on a 2-on-1 rush and then deposited a wrist shot over the glove to pull the Blue Ox within one.
Cullen nearly tied the game three minutes later on with another wrist shot, but this one clanked off the post and the Flames swung the momentum when they scored with 6:16 remaining on a high-tip by Dekleine for a 3-1 lead.
Cullen cut the deficit to 3-2 early in the third period and Coulter tied it at 3-3, but the Flames scored 39 seconds later when Machado corralled a rebound to make it 4-3.
That set the stage for the dramatic final minutes, with Hontvet finding the back of the net in the dying moments and Cullen then completing the hat trick for a championship.
Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.
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